This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2003-4869, filed Jan. 24, 2003, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ice maker, and more particularly to an ice maker which makes ice and removes ice from the ice tray efficiently.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is generally known in the art, an ice maker is an apparatus that is mounted in a refrigerator or in a vending machine and makes ice when water is supplied.
An ice maker according to the related art consists of a driving pulley, a following pulley which is mounted near the driving pulley at a predetermined distance, and an ice-making conveyor provided with a plurality of ice making grooves. The ice-making conveyor is mounted to roll on the driving pulley and the following pulley. In addition, a heater is provided at an inner part of the ice-making conveyor so as to remove ice, which is frozen in the ice-making groove, from the ice-tray that is located at the lower part of the ice-making conveyor.
Accordingly, when ice is made in ice-making grooves which are located on the upper surface of an ice-making conveyor, the driving pulley and the following pulley make the ice-making conveyor move so as to make the ice-making grooves face downward. Then the heater is turned on that generates heat so as to remove ice from the ice-making grooves.
However, in an ice maker according to the related art, a heater that generates heat to remove ice from the ice-making grooves increases the temperature in the freezer in which the ice maker is mounted. Thus the ice-making process is not performed efficiently.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the related art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ice maker that makes ice more efficiently.
Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
To achieve the above and other aspects of the present invention, there is provided an ice maker according to present invention. The ice maker comprises a cooling and heating apparatus to absorb heat on one side of the apparatus""s structure, and then distribute the heat on the opposite side of the apparatus""s structure, and at least one receptacle to receive water for freezing, whereby the receptacle is mechanically inverted in order to release the ice. The receptacle is located above the heat absorbing side of the apparatus when water is being frozen, and the receptacle is located below the heat distributing side when the ice is released.
The cooling and heating apparatus may comprise a Peltier element which absorbs heat from the heat absorbing side and radiates heat to the heat distributing side.
Also, radiant pins may be provided on the heat absorbing side and the heat radiating side of the Peltier element so as to absorb and radiate the heat efficiently.